This Day is for All of Them
by SuperDork1346
Summary: Veteran's day rolls around every year but it never gets easier. At least this year, Percy has his girls to help him through it. Annabeth is there to understand; Rachel is there to protect them both from curious eyes and words people don't realize can pierce skin as easily as nails into wood. And Sally, Sally is there to listen and to make sure at least the cookies don't burn.
1. For Her Friends

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of it's characters**

Percy was always the type of guy that smiled when he saw you in the hallway, remembered your name after the first time meeting you and laughed even when your jokes were terrible. But one day it was like his ability to be happy shut down and his entire being just went out the door leaving an empty shell.

"It's Veteran's Day." Was the reply the school was given by his friends, the blonde that no one really knew because she was in advanced classes and went to tech, and Rachel who everyone thought was his girlfriend no matter how much both of them denied it. "Just leave him be, he'll talk when he's ready."

So everyone did, everyone left him alone as he sat in the back of the room with a notebook not for any of the classes he was in and writing names that no one knew. They left him alone as he walked the halls with his face in his phone, sending texts faster than anyone had ever seen him before. He always he had to go really slow so he didn't mess up the words with his dyslexia, but now I wasn't so sure. Not about the dyslexia part, he very clearly struggled with reading and writing English but maybe there was something he wasn't telling us.

"Today is just hard for us, we'll explain when we're ready." Annabeth snapped at a guy who was bothering her in the hallway about why she wasn't smiling. It was like she'd finally cracked, all of her happiness leaking out over the floor and evaporating. Her eyes went from silver to storm clouds, her smile turned into a snarl fiercer than any animal known to man or god, her fingers curling themselves into fists at her sides as if she was holding onto her last shred of sanity. "Leave me alone asshole."

Rachel was at her side in seconds like she was called to the angry and broken, wrapping the girl in a hug so tight she might have been hoping to force her back together. "I know honey, I know. I don't understand what you're going through but I can see it, I can feel slivers of pain wafting off you like you're wearing spikes. You look like Thalia in her punk phase."

Annabeth's laugh was like an old track that you heard being played on TV shows when something funny happened. She was supposed to laugh, maybe she really found it funny but there was something off about not being able to tell. "Thalia didn't have a phase, she's always been Punk." The words were newspaper clippings arranged into sentences, you understood what they meant but they weren't supposed to go together that way. They had other letters and other means hid underneath them, they were part of secret sentences you would never know. "Can you walk with me to class?"

"Of course." The girls walked away with their shoulders brushing and stained glass eyes.

When he spoke in class it was like he was talking to the Face Stealer from Avatar, his eyes only on the spot in front of him and you would almost believe his lips were the only thing he was able to move. But when he was asked to read aloud what he had written about what Veterans day meant to him, he took a shaky breath as he stood. "Today is a special day because everyone is celebrating what you did for us and they don't even know it. They don't know about how you got on that ship or that you didn't ever leave. Today is a special day because when I get home we'll have chocolate that I agree tastes like cardboard. It's special because I will play mythomagic and we both know I have no chance, but I won't be able to touch the Hades card. Today is a special day because it means something different for everyone else but it means nothing to you because by the time it was meant for you, you weren't here." There were tears in his eyes as he sat back down before wiping them away and staring off into space again/

So everyone whispered about how Percy had lost his dad and that's why he can't look at Paul. People try and tell him they understand now and how sorry they are, but he shakes his head. They don't. "What is it then? Why are you texting like you're going to die if you don't?"

"Because I had a cousin named Bianca and I still have one named Nico. I had a mentor named Beckendorf, one named Luke and I don't have one now. Because every name in this damn book was a Veteran and the people I'm texting lost them too." He wasn't a storm on the ocean, he was the quiet signs of a drought that no one listens to and then cry about when it comes. He pulled all of the happiness out of the air and out of the ground, throwing it away because it was worthless to him. He needed to be sad today. For them.

People scoffed because there had to be at least fifty names in that book but they saw the way Rachel watched the two of them leave school. Hands brushing as they moved together step for step, talking quietly with faint smiles no one had seen all day. "He wasn't friends with them all, but they either went to his camp or were the siblings of one of his friends." She was talking to no one and everyone all at once, her eyes a brighter green than before. Almost like she was possessed. "He wasn't close with his cousin but he was with her when it happened. I didn't know her, I didn't meet most of them. Percy never lies about who he's lost, he's not that type of person and anyone who thinks differently doesn't know him. This day is for them too."


	2. For Her Children

"How are they doing?" Sally was at the door as soon as they made it home with a batch of blue cookies ready for them, not caring about school. Not today. She sat at the counter while Percy talked about the other kids and what they did to fill the time.

"Nico spent the day at Will's, most of the Apollo cabin went home to their families. They usually do something special on their birthdays, but it's especially hard for Will because he's the one who inherited the cabin." His hands were busy again, stirring the dough together as if he was kneading his emotions into it. "And you know Nico, he doesn't talk about it but he's made at least three italian desserts and hasn't spoken english the past two days. Will is translating for his mother but mostly it's just random words. He really should talk to someone, taking over Naomi's kitchen is not a healthy coping method." His attention was drawn back as he added in the final ingredient, moving on to roll it into smaller pieces to put in the oven. "Clarisse and Chris are binge eating chocolate, Cabin Nine is holed up in their bunker playing music that Chiron wouldn't normally allow. Pollux might have gotten drunk but I can't tell, I'm not sure if that's possible for him. But his lips are more purple than normal."

Annabeth was seated next to her in one of the barstools, spread out over the counter in front of them. She only grunted as her boyfriend nudged her away from a spot he needed, a ragdoll as heavy and immovable as a brick wall.

"I don't know what Camp Jupiter is doing. Frank is in Canada visiting his mother's grave with Hazel, they're going to head to Alaska for a short trip too. I'm not sure how Hazel is going to handle seeing her own grave but I mean, I saw my own pyre. Of course than I was being charged by a crying Annabeth and she's always my main focus." His joke fell on dead ears as soft snores echoed in the kitchen. He shrugged as he shoved the trays into the racks of the oven, moving on to make another batch. "Thalia and the hunters are off somewhere where you can see the galaxy the sky is so clear, they're going to pay tribute to Zoe."

Sally smiled sadly as she watched her son move around the kitchen on auto pilot, making cookies like he had started doing every year since he was twelve and came home broken the first time. She could see the shattered look in his eyes but whenever he caught her gaze or fixed his girlfriend's curls, she could see just how green they really were when they weren't broken up by so much white.

"Can you switch this batch into the oven when the others are done? I'm going to go wash up before we leave." He seemed to relax as she assured him she would, moving around to carry Annabeth off to his room so she could nap. The pipes groaned slightly as the shower started running, Sally sighing too as she realized he hadn't even noticed he wasn't wearing oven mitts. The water would wash away any damage but his hands would be sore for a few days.

She pulled on the fore mentioned material and checked on the last batch to make sure they were done. When they appeared golden brown and perfect, she left them to cool on the stove top as she moved to transfer the others from the cooling rack into containers. He always said they had to be fresh and warm, he wanted anyone who bit into one to be reminded of cool glasses of milk sitting at a kitchen table they might not have sat at for decades. "Perseus Jackson, what are we going to do with you?" He didn't even seem to notice she had mentioned his name as he walked back into the kitchen with wrapped hands and an oversized swim sweatshirt. It was as if his body would never fit into anything correctly again besides the metal they fitted to his body or a gaudy orange t shirt. Most days he covered his tattoo, he even considered getting it removed before he realized that was impossible. "Are you ready to go?"

He shook his head as he moved to carry the stacks down to the car like he did every year, but this one he wasn't going alone. When he was headed down with the last of them, Annabeth appeared in the entrance of the kitchen. "Are you ready to go?' His words were quieter and he held them like they were precious.

She nodded slowly like she wasn't sure, moving towards the door to slip on a jacket and put on her shoes. It didn't matter if she was in sweatpants and Percy had to help her tie her laces. It didn't matter that she seemed to be existing in slow motion, her eyes blinking slowly wherever she was asked a question. For once in five years he wouldn't be going alone, he _wasn't_ alone. No matter how many times his mom hugged him or how much she let him talk himself through the day, it was never enough. Because no matter how much he loved Sally, she wasn't what he needed.

"Tell all of them I saw hello and thank you. I remembered to put Annabeth's notes on the inside of the lids and I put the letters in your jacket pocket." She watched as the two of them disappeared, planning their route to every veterans shelter in New York. Or at least the ones they could reach before they ran out of cookies and letters to share.

Paul shutting the door snapped her out of her thoughts, his arms wrapping around her waist as she cried into his chest. "You did great, you did all that you could and now it's his time to say thank you."

She knew he was right. She knew Percy felt better when he sat across from someone with the same look in their eyes and they shared a cookie, pretending to sneak it past the nurses who knew perfectly well what was happening. She knew Annabeth would smile as she lost a game of chess to someone who was struggling to even breathe but "sure as hell was not loosing to a teenager, I haven't lost a game in my life not going to start now with you". She knew a lot of things. But all she felt was sadness that Veterans day was also for her children.


End file.
